Keith Shaw’s Radical RC 1905 Wright Flyer Project Part 1

This series of posts created from email correspondence between Keith and I. He’s really done a lot of neat things to this kit. Expect a new report every Thursday for at least 5 weeks. Keith is in the AMA Hall of Fame. He is one of the fathers of modern day electric flight, a superb scale builder and solid modeler in many ways. Read more on the AMA website: Autobiography of KEITH SHAW

You can meet Keith every year at the Mid-America Flies electric fly in where he and Ken Myers of the EFO club host the longest running electric power meet in the country if not the world. Both are AMA Hall Of Fame members. Lots of scale modelers attend this event. Your sure to see many very nice hand built models here. The event is usually held in June and is always announced in the Ampeer Newsletter.

On to the first installment of Keith’s 1905 Wright Flyer Project:

Scale 1905 Wright Engine/Coil

First up is the dummy engine and magneto. Engine is made from foamboard, card stock, bits of lite-ply, dowel, and the chain is a section from a cheap necklace. Magneto is carved from pink foam.

Scale 1905 Wright Engine/Coil
Scale 1905 Wright Engine/Coil
Pilot
Toy Fireman taylor’d into 1905 gentleman.

Pilot is from Toys R Us, a “True Heros Fire Rescue, Robert Portman”. Very close to 1/7th scale. Had to use heat gun and some carving to pose him onto the necessary prone pilot position. Figure comes with boots and a bright yellow suit with day-go emergency strips. Fortunately the strips were sewed on, so easily removed. The uniform required some tailoring to make it look more like a 1900’s suit. The collar, tie and cuffs are all thin painted card stock. Toughest thing was trying to dye the bright yellow cloth to look right. The fabric is polyester and not easy to color. Tried RIT, then some aniline dyes without luck. Finally took a black magic marker apart, diluted the liquid, ad soaked the fabric overnight. It came out a black-green, and looks acceptable. I still have to make a cap for Orville, looking for better photos of that type of “Duster” cap he always wore.

Keith

Share

Another Wright Stick Takes To The Skies

Jack Sheller writes:  Finally got her going.  CG just where you said.  Flys great. Built a sled for takeoff.

Jack reports on paint used:  Just cheap Ace Hardware “Touch ‘n tone” Antique white, # 55281830. I took a piece of canvas with me ant that matched the best.

Nice Job Jack!

Share

John Purtee’s Twin Speed 300 Stick

Example of how a well planned power system works. Model hanging in shop. Can’t wait to fly it again. John builds nice stuff. All of them light and strong. Many hand built models by John are listed on our front page as of the date of this post.

Share